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PopCap games to be bundled with Sony Ericsson phones in Europe
PopCap and Sony Ericsson today announced an agreement that will finally bring the casual developer's titles to Android devices in Europe. The agreement will bring them to exactly two of Sony's platforms, the Xperia Mini and the Xperia Mini Pro, as they roll out this summer. Three of PopCap's titles will be pre-loaded onto the devices, specifically the full version of Chuzzle and trial versions of Plants vs. Zombies and Peggle. In the press release detailing the agreement, PopCap's Giordano Bruno Contestabile stated, "We are delighted to partner with Sony Ericsson to fulfill our promise to Android users and bring PopCap's hit mobile games to an ever-widening base of smartphone users." Presumably, PopCap's titles will spread to more than two of Sony's phones in the future.
PopCap signs Amazon Android Appstore deal; Chuzzle, PvZ available this month
PopCaps's Chuzzle and Plants vs. Zombies will launch for Android devices exclusively through Amazon's Appstore for Android. Amazon will have a two-week exclusive on both titles for the "U.S. market." Chuzzle will be available tomorrow, May 17, through May 30 and Plants vs. Zombies will shamble in "during a second exclusive offer later this month." Both games will be free on the first day of availability and $2.99 after. PopCap's announcement is missing a lot of details about the timetable for the exclusives. We're currently following up and asking if a similar approach is planned for the company's future Android titles.
PopCap and Taito team up to bring Pop Tower to Japan
PopCap Games and Taito announced a partnership this morning that would oversee the launch of a new "dedicated mobile social game service" in Japan. The service is named, appropriately enough, Pop Tower. The service will add an "all-new metagame with RPG elements" to several of PopCap's titles (Bejeweled, Chuzzle, and Zuma were all named), unifying multiple PopCap properties under one persistent leveling system. Beyond unnamed new modes being added and the RPG metagame, additional "social elements" will give players the opportunity to communicate with friends. As we've come to expect with most games moved from the Western market to the East, microtransactions will play a major role in the monetization of Pop Tower's titles, allowing for the purchase of "in-game virtual goods and premium service options." And hey, if that means we can play as Björn the Unicorn across multiple PopCap titles and persistently level him up, consider us sold.
Peggle (finally) coming to Mac
In Peggle parlance, Popcap Games has just landed a very nice rebound shot, knocking out two hits in one day and launching us into a state of "Extreme Fever." In layman's terms, Popcap has just announced the launch of Peggle for Mac OS X, closely following the game's release on Apple's iPod music player. Identical to the PC-version, Peggle Deluxe on Mac features 55 levels of Pachinko-inspired, ball-bouncing, peg-busting mayhem. Unlike recent Mac ports like Guitar Hero III and GameTap, the release is Universal Binary, meaning it's compatible with Intel Macs, as well as older Power PC Macs. Also releasing today for the Mac is Popcap's classic puzzle game Chuzzle, a match-three casual title originally released in 2005. Now all we need is Bookworm Adventures on the Mac and we'll be set for life.
